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First Antarctic Frog Fossil Found

posted by martyb on Saturday April 25 2020, @01:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the finding-a-long-lost-great-great-great...-great-grandparent-of-Kermit dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Soybull

The first frog fossil from Antarctica has been found:

Scientists have previously found evidence of giant amphibians[*] that walked Antarctica during the Triassic Period, over 200 million years ago, but no traces on the continent of amphibians like those around today (SN: 3/23/15). The shape of the newly discovered bones indicates that this frog belonged to the family of Calyptocephalellidae, or helmeted frogs, found today in South America.

The fossilized frog's modern relatives live exclusively in the warm, humid central Chilean Andes. This suggests that similar climate conditions existed on Antarctica around 40 million years ago, researchers report April 23 in Scientific Reports.

That offers a clue about how fast Antarctica switched from balmy to bitter cold (SN: 4/1/20). Antarctica quickly froze over after splitting from Australia and South America, which were once all part of the supercontinent Gondwana (SN: 10/10/19).

[*] Behind a paywall.

Journal Reference:
T. Mörs, M. Reguero and D. Vasilyan. First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia. Scientific Reports. Published online April 23, 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5.

The jokes almost write themselves. Who will be first to leap at the opportunity?

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 25 2020, @02:24AM (4 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 25 2020, @02:24AM (#986806) Journal

    Antarctica quickly froze over after splitting from Australia and South America,

    They have brought up frozen tropical ferns in core drills. Not some slush that had to go through a laboratory, to identify it as the remains of tropical ferns. They have pulled the fresh-frozen remains of tropical ferns out of those core drills. Whatever happened to Antarctica, it happened overnight. It wasn't over the course of a decade, or a century, or even a thousand years. It went from tropical forest, to frozen wasteland, all in one go, pretty nearly instantly. I would like to see that explained, without some vague hand-waving.

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  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday April 25 2020, @03:04AM (3 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Saturday April 25 2020, @03:04AM (#986818) Journal

    20-30 million years is not really all that sudden [austhrutime.com]:

    By 30 Ma the last impediment to the movement of water around Antarctica was removed when the connection between the tip of South America and Antarctica and between Tasmania and Antarctica was broken. The formation of the circum-Polar current now developed. This allowed the freezing of the Antarctica continent by shielding it from the warmer water of the adjacent oceans. After 50 Ma Australia began to move more rapidly and by 45 Ma the last connection with Antarctica was broken.

    10 Ma. By now the increasing aridity was being caused in Australia, especially in the interior, by the greatly expanding ice sheets in Antarctica. This led to reduced erosion and deposition. A similar effect has recently been found to be responsible for the decades long drought across southern Western Australia and Victoria, in this case by the contraction of the weather systems closer to Antarctica that previously brought winter rain to the southern parts of the continent. The rain-bearing clouds no longer reach as far north as they did previously, many completely missing the Australian continent. (Catalyst, ABC TV).

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 25 2020, @04:25AM (2 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 25 2020, @04:25AM (#986833) Journal

      No, the entire continent didn't hard freeze overnight, but certainly, regions on the continent took the plunge from tropics to frozen overnight.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by mhajicek on Saturday April 25 2020, @05:47AM

        by mhajicek (51) on Saturday April 25 2020, @05:47AM (#986849)

        But have they found the second stargate yet?

        --
        The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Saturday April 25 2020, @06:46AM

        by MostCynical (2589) on Saturday April 25 2020, @06:46AM (#986858) Journal

        Most of East Antarctica is still not well known by geologists but it does include the Transantarctic Mountains. These commonly exceed 4000 metres elevation. The shield is very depressed in the centre, where it carries the bulk of the Antarctic ice sheet. Large areas lie deeper than 1000 metres below sea level.

        things might be quite sudden when you're that far down.. [antarctica.gov.au]

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex